“It’s official: Apple’s Board of Directors and executive team, led by Tim Cook, clearly never had or have completely lost any real respect for Steve Jobs,” Rocco Pendola writes for TheStreet.

“…The company’s decision to tie the size (hence, value) of upper management’s stock option packages to S&P 500 performance is so tragic,” Pendola writes. “This is not only a rebuke of Steve Jobs and the Apple way — the very essence of what made Apple the world’s greatest company — it’s a perverse validation of Wall Street and the stock market. As if Wall Street should play any role whatsoever in determining how much anybody from the CEO to the cleaning crew at Apple makes.”

“It’s an easy move to make when you’re already rich beyond comprehension,” Pendola writes. “You’re putting compensation at risk that’s little more than icing on an already badass cake… It’s all lip service. Something we’re seeing more and more of from Apple under Cook’s leadership… These guys are recklessly and multi-handedly desecrating Steve Jobs’s legacy. This is just another example of Apple losing its way, operating like every other company.”

Pendola asks, “If Tim Cook really wants to tie his pay to performance, why doesn’t he use unit sales of Apple’s next big piece of hardware as the benchmark, not a market index that’s coming off of one of history’s biggest bull runs?”

Tim Worstall writes for Forbes, “The performance metric is surprisingly strong: ‘The relative TSR criteria will be applied to each 80,000 RSU tranche scheduled to vest on each anniversary of the original August 24, 2011 grant date, and will compare Apple’s TSR to the TSR of the companies in the S&P 500 using public data derived from Standard and Poor’s. If Apple’s performance is within the top third of that group, the RSUs in the tranche for that year will vest in full. If its performance is in the middle third, the RSUs in the tranche for that year will be reduced by 25%, and if its performance is in the bottom third, the RSUs in that tranche will be reduced by 50%.’

“TSR is Total Stockholder Return and is, essentially, stock price appreciation plus dividends in any one period,” Worstall explains.

“I can imagine any number of other CEOs spitting with rage at this. For Cook has voluntarily come forward and demanded (hmm, asked? insisted?) that he should be held to a performance target and that also it should be a stringent one. And finally, that he can only lose money for failing it, not gain any more for beating it. And I’d expect some of those CEOs to be spitting with rage because this might wake up some of the more supine boards out there and become a template for stock awards that are rather more stringent than those usual at present,” Worstall writes. “I would have to say that it’s full marks to Mr. Cook on this.”

73 Comments

Yeah, despite the loss in stock value over the past 3/4 year, I’ve been fairly confident that Apple was still on a correct thinking path. I’ve been looking, waiting for a sign that they truly have lost their way, and this just might be it. When the incentive in the board room is stock price, you can kiss the “our primary goal is to make great products” goodbye.

yup, since cooks big paycheque and several errors,
the firings, the current supply chain, handling of legal issues, partnerships, overseeing software and key members;
apple has been in a bad position – the John Scully years are back

just take a look at other company. APPL seems only one to react kind of bad situation even though it has sold lots still. it is a sign that something is wrong inside of apple. but it’s only the story in US. for worldwide, apple sale really sucks hell. you should know it.

No, you’re an idiot. Jobs spent quite a bit of time figuring out how he could make money selling the next big thing. That’s the financial aspect of it. Jobs may not have monitored every penny, but he certainly knew what technology had to go for to make money.

hypocrisy |hiˈpäkrisē|
noun ( pl. hypocrisies )
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense.
ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French ypocrisie, via ecclesiastical Latin, from Greek hupokrisis ‘acting of a theatrical part,’ from hupokrinesthai ‘play a part, pretend,’ from hupo ‘under’ + krinein ‘decide, judge.’

What you and I do is VERY different, botvijerk. I insult you only because you insult people — to throw your shit back at you. I never insult people because I disagree with them or think they are way off base.

You, on the other hand, routinely insult people. Why could you not simply say, “Jobs never struck me as one who spent most of his time looking at financials”, and stop at “financials”. Why do you have to finish with an insult?

Little miss manners lecturing every post you don’t like on how to respond in a civil manner and NOT call names.

Wake up, you broke your own rules by resorting to name calling our Yankee fan and your credibility is now a joke.

I suggest you redeem yourself by commenting on the articles for a change and leave free speech to the rest of us. Your scolding is a waste of time because it yields minor to nothing in results judging by the responses

That said, hey, have fun whatever. The one-trick pony lives on and judging by the comments, we ignore you …

re “you broke your own rules”
Not at all. I’ve clearly explained that I NEVER insult someone simply because I disagree with what they think — even if I disagree enormously. But if someone wants to throw shit (swear, call people names, and insult them) then I’ll throw shit back.

re “Your scolding is a waste of time…”
I dunno. Many people “scold” the rude jerks from time to time. I think it’s good think for the jerks to know that many don’t like the way they conduct themselves. And I find it very supportive when I read others telling sfgh, Nut, First and others to piss off.

And I still hope that on some far off sunny day, MDN will decide to have some basic standard of politeness on here. The more various people confront the rude jerks and voice their disapproval, the more like that is to happen.

“However, you are still employing the same tactics you lecture against”

Contrarian, I suggest it’s a different thing.

On the one hand we have someone engaging in verbal/emotional violence for some possible motivation that he just likes to hurt people, that he wants to dominate, that he gains pleasure in causing pain or attempting to cause pain.

On the other hand, we have someone engaging in a seemingly similar action to attempt to negate the action of the violent jerk.

It’s parallel to physical defense. One engages in physical violence for perverted pleasure. The other engages in physical defense of themselves or others. The two look physically the same. But the second person ONLY does theirs in reaction to violence. The timing and motivation are entirely different.

If botvijerk stopped the insulting and name-calling, I would have no reason to continue any such posts, and would never again type a swear word or call him names. On the other hand, if I stop, he will just carry on with his pathetic nastiness. Another way in which our actions are very different things.

To me, inaction that allows violence to carry on unchecked — whether physical or verbal — is not a desirable course.

“Sticks and stones will hurt my bones but words will never hurt me.”
Specious.
What is the point of calling somebody names or implying an insult? You are discussing these points with me. On the other hand, botvijerk’s contribution to this exchange was to call me a lady. (Oh, no! Swoon. Got me there with that piece of literature, botvijerk.) In such a post as his, with zero thoughtful or concrete content, his purpose is obviously to attempt to hurt.

Obviously name-calling and insulting hurt people, or, if not outright “hurt”, create an unpleasant environment. Otherwise there is zero point to such words and using them would be simply empty stupidity.

I don’t think botvijerk is engaging in empty stupidity. I think he is a nasty little bully who wants his words to have a negative effect on their target. Repeating a cliché does not negate that fact that words have real effects.

I think botvijerk would not talk like that to his boss, or to client/customers, or to 300 lb bikers — because words have real effects on people and those people would respond by firing him or not coming to his business or kicking his teeth in.

By the way, don’t you see anything contradictory in defending his “right” to talk to others however he wants while criticizing me for doing so?

Steve *absolutely* cared about the financials — otherwise he would not have pushed Apple from the mid to low 30% gross margins in the late 70s to the upper 40% gross margins in the last few years before his death.

What Steve *absolutely* did not care about what how Wall Street viewed Apple’s financials. If Apple was increasing revenues and controlling costs (by whatever means — which is why he liked Cook) and thus increasing profits, then Steve was happy about the financials. Steve’s days of repainting the production equipment to make it all a more acceptable color (at least to him) were long gone by the time he returned. It was all about making things people would want to buy (whether they knew it or not) and about making a good profit on top of it.

Yes, Steve was not a stereotypical “beancounter”, but he definitely was interested in, and invested in, Apple’s financials.

“Apple’s goal isn’t to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products… We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence, we’ll make some money. But we’re really clear about what our goals are.”

apples stock soared not because of cook…
it was the ripple effect of jobs as apples second coming
if steve was still alive, no matter how ill he was, i am sure the stocks would have never plummeted like they have
cook needs to step down
and ives should back off ui design

Pendola is a hack who’s been attacking Tim Cook ever since the stock slide began. Rocco is the proverbial blind squirrel feeling around for nuts.

Tim Cook’s payment package, and AAPL’s performance, has zip to do with what Jony Ive and the others churn out down in Cupertino. Nothing whatsoever. Even if I don’t agree with what Apple does sometimes, or what Tim Cook does, none of this BS has anything to do with what Apple does best.

not happy also with iOS7, but one thing Apples is now transparent with some of these new features taking a lesson from Android – can only hope Apples implementations better the user experience and remain easy to do

Baloney. If anything, iOS 7 moves MORE toward what Jobs would want – hardware and software which work seamlessly together, not a hodge-podge of looks, actions, effects, etc. A unified interface that takes the thought and difficulties of computing away from the consumer and makes the experience joyful.

Well, yes coloured bubbles is actually a pretty good one for gaming, an area mainly populated by children and faux adults and which doesn’t exactly add anything worthwhile to the world. Gaming = light and frothy = bubbles.

My brother in his fifthties has never owned an Apple product until a few months ago when he bought an iPhone 5 and he absolutely loves it!

At a family function yesterday showed him pictures of the new screen icons in iOS7. Immediately said they were hideous and some of them hard to figure out what is what.

Also mentioned they look like Windows 8 tile icons on his home computer, also hideous. Pointed out the good thing in Windows 8 you have the OPTION to turn of the tiles and go back to the classic look, exactly what he did.

Wait…????? your brother bought an iPhone 5 yet he changed the look of the tiles on his windows icons back to the classic look (CHANGE ICONS BACK TO CLASSIC LOOK ON HIS HOME COMPUTER IN WINDOWS 8 BY SWITCHING OFF THE TILES COMPLETELY, NOT CHANGE THE TILE ICONS THEMSELVES, 8 HAS AN OPTION TO CHOOSE WHAT HE DESCRIBED AS THE XP DESKTOP)……???

And he loves his iPhone 5 and yet hates something (DESIGN OF THE NEW ICONS ONLY, HATES THE LOOK AS MUCH AS WINDOWS TILE ICONS) that has not come out yet????

Hope I cleared that up for you.

I don’t have to use it to KNOW the look of the new iOS icons are spartan, outlines and loss of most gradients, rich illustration and depth — I find unappealing. Simply prefer the JOBS ‘classic’ look.

I too love most of what apple stands for
I also have many apple products and for many years
I have made a fantastic living working with Apple even

yet I am sorry to admit
I do own but rarely use an Android device.
ugh – im doomed

does this make me any lesser of a Apple Fan?

People, grow up. I think Android is horrid in many ways, however in other ways, it has provided opinions to consumers. Apple should have eliminated Android if it is such a stolen product, yet it is free to evolve and it is out pacing Apple at the moment. Apple seems to be copying the nice features in Android. If you love computing and electronics – why does it have to be solely to Apple.

Apple is fragmented in other ways, iOS has HD and Standard apps – no need for that if scale and dimensions remained constant

Your point about Android innovating features in software faster has happened too many times for comfort. Other posters have mentioned the same in very detailed examples noting Apple is too often in catch-up mode. But when they do come around, they usually do it better and advance features in superior ways. That said, not all the time. Notifications and the pesky small ‘X’. Clear all, clear one by one would be an improvement.

More and more are seeing what I see – the once great company in serious decline (as in, nothing ahead to really inspire the consumer) and the guy in charge MUST be accountable. It doesn’t matter the rationale, the reality demands change.

No, Wall Street only sees that it is more and more difficult for them to make money on what used to be a sure bet to increase in value – AAPL. The fact is that without market manipulation and incessant demands for Apple to first pay then increase its dividend, that stockbrokers and hedge fund managers were clueless as to how to make money on AAPL. They couldn’t predict it anymore, so they had to scream and yell for something to change.

And Apple caved. That’s the sad part. I would rather have seen Apple tell Wall Street to screw itself and buy back all of its stock than have it capitulate to Wall Street as it has.

Tying compensations for Apple executives to past performance is what most companies, that respect themselves, should do.
The question is how performance should be measured. I.e., stock performance vs. quarterly gains. IMHO TC should have gone for the latter.

You guys have lambasted me in the past for saying it as an Apple fan, but now everyone can clearly see “TIM COOK MUST GO!”

He’s simply not qualified, not innovative, has zero presence or personality, or just simply is not the right person to run Apple… unless of course running Apple means running it right into the ground from 20,000 feet!

You can take your pick from the choices above, if it will help to soothe your naysayer conscious.

The only thing people are complaining about Tim Cook’s “personality” is his on stage performance. So he’s not as charismatic as Steve Jobs.

Maybe Apple should just keep Cook as an MC in a more reduced role and let Craig F. take on the bulk of product introductions. He was fantastic! Let Phil Schiller do more. Let Jony Ive on stage (I doubt he wants to be on stage, as his comments are always taped, but I think he would be good too).

Not every CEO needs to be on stage making the crowd swoon. I would certainly think Microsoft would be better without Ballmer ever taking the stage again, even if he was still CEO.

Thanks for more of the brown dribbling stuff “Welcome to the Suck”. I used to think that idiots like you were merely trolls with too much time on your hands. Now I realise you are actually paid to trawl Apple forums and spew your anti-Apple tirades. Pathetic Samsung, et

The whole propaganda tries to remove Tim Cook from left to right. Perhaps there is a guy in Apple headquarter who is next to Tim’s office is interested to replace on Cook’s chair. therefore he runs the whole scheme up and down, left to right from WS, media, analyst, the list goes on and on.

He wants Tim Cook’s chair? The “whole propaganda”? Left to right? hmmmmmmmmm………… say listen, are you going to be interviewed by George Nouri on Coast to Coast tonight by any chance? I don’t want to miss that one!